US President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for the rapid development of tests, vaccines and treatments to fight the Zika virus, following a briefing on the spread of the mosquito-transmitted disease, the White House said.
The World Health Organisation has predicted the virus, linked to brain damage in thousands of babies in Brazil, will spread to most countries across the Americas, including ...

A record-breaking string of hot years since 2000 is almost certainly a sign of man-made global warming, with vanishingly small chances that it was caused by random, natural swings, a study showed on Monday.
Last year was the hottest since records began in the 19th century in a trend that almost all scientists blame on greenhouse gases from burning of fossil fuels, stoking heat waves, droughts, ...

Scientists behind a Doomsday Clock that measures the likelihood of a global cataclysm are set to announce Tuesday whether civilization is any closer or farther from disaster.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is expected to unveil the minute hand on the metaphorical clock in Washington, D.C. The clock reflects how vulnerable the world is to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change a...

The 2022 World Cup should be hosted by the United States if the Qatar bid is proven to have been corrupt, FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne said on Tuesday.
If it had to be reconsidered, there should not be another vote but we should apply the International Olympic Committee (IOC) jurisprudence, give the gold medal to the silver medallist, the Frenchman told French radio RTL.
In t...

Malaysias top prosecutor has cleared Prime Minister Najib Razak of corruption in a long-running financial scandal that has gripped the nation.
The attorney-generals office said the $681m (479m) Mr Najib received in his bank account was a personal donation from the Saudi royal family.
Critics had alleged the money came from state-owned investment fund 1MDB.
Mr Najib has consistently denied...

Myanmars democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi has held talks on the transfer of power with army chief Min Aung Hlaing, before a parliament dominated by lawmakers from her National League for Democracy (NLD) convenes for the first time next week.
It was the second meeting between the pair since Suu Kyis party won nearly 80 percent of contested seats at a historic election last November a victor...

Eight Egyptians involved in a botched repair of the famed golden burial mask of King Tut, which was corrected late last year, have been referred to trial for gross negligence.
Prosecutors said in a Sunday statement that the 3,300-year old mask, whose beard was accidentally knocked off and hastily glued on with epoxy in 2014, was scratched and damaged as a result.
The mask was put back on di...

The Metropolitan Police Crime Division said a manpower agency operator has been arrested on charge of human trafficking.
The suspect, identified as 26-year-old Subas Thapa Magar of the Compass Recruitment Pvt. Ltd., had sent a 31-year-old woman from Samakot of Syangja to Macau on tourist visa in February last year on the pretext of landing her in a lucrative job, according to the MPCD. She was ...

Police arrested a man and seized clothes worth around Rs 350,000 for trying to import the goods while evading tax from Gaur Border Out-Post Office in Rautahat district on Saturday.
An Armed Police Force team in Gaur confiscated five packets of clothes brought from Bairgania of India, while trying to escape without paying the customs duty.
Inspector Chiranjivi Prasain informed that the seize...

At least 63 people, including nine children, have died in air strikes believed to be carried out by Russian warplanes on a town in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.
The raids on Khasham near the city of Deir al-Zor on Saturday were among a series of strikes that also hit two other town in the past 48 hours, killing scores of people.
Russian jets have been...